Immune checkpoint inhibitors associated granulomatous small vessel vasculitis accompanied with tubulointerstitial nephritis: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have provided significant benefits in cancer treatment, but they could develop immune-related adverse events (irAE). ICI-associated renal adverse effects are rare and tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN) is the most common in the renal irAE. However, only a few case reports of renal vasculitis associated with ICI have been reported. In addition, the characteristics of infiltrating inflammatory cells of ICI-associated TIN and renal vasculitis have been uncertain. CASE PRESENTATION: A 65-year-old man received immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), anti-CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4) and anti-PD-1 (programmed cell death 1) antibodies for aggravated metastatic malignant melanoma. About 1 week after the second administration of nivolumab and ipilimumab, acute kidney injury developed. A renal biopsy was performed that showed TIN and non-necrotizing granulomatous vasculitis in interlobular arteries. Massive CD3+ T cells and CD163+ macrophages infiltrated both tubulointerstitium and interlobular arteries. Many infiltrating cells tested positive for Ki-67 and PD-1 ligand (PD-L1), but negative for PD-1. In CD3+ T cells, CD8+ T cells were predominantly infiltrated, and these cells were positive for Granzyme B (GrB) and cytotoxic granule TIA-1, but negative for CD25, indicating antigen-independent activated CD8+ T cells. Infiltration of CD4+ T cells was noted without obvious CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T (Treg) cells. His renal dysfunction recovered within 2 months of treatment with prednisolone in addition to discontinuation of nivolumab and ipilimumab. CONCLUSIONS: We herein reported a case of ICI-related TIN and renal granulomatous vasculitis with infiltration of massive antigen-independent activated CD8+ T cells and CD163+ macrophages, and none or few CD4+ CD25+ Treg cells. These infiltrating cells might be a characteristic of the development of renal irAE.

Tin(II) and Tin(IV) Complexes Incorporating the Oxygen Tripodal Ligands [(η5-C5R5)Co{P(OEt)2O}3]-, (R = H, Me; Et = -C2H5) as Potent Inflammatory Mediator Inhibitors: Cytotoxic Properties and Biological Activities against the Platelet-Activating Factor (PAF) and Thrombin.

Metal complexes displaying antiplatelet properties is a promising research area. In our methodology, Platelet-Activating Factor (PAF), the most potent lipid pro-inflammatory mediator, serves as a biological probe. The antiplatelet activity is exerted by the inhibition of the PAF-induced aggregation in washed rabbit platelets (WRPs) and in rabbit plasma rich in platelets (rPRPs). Herein, the synthesis and biological investigation of a series of organometallic tin(II) and tin(IV) complexes, featuring the oxygen tripodal Kläui ligands [(η5-C5R5)Co{P(OEt)2O}3]-, {R = H, (LOEt-); Me (L*OEt-)}, are reported. Reaction of NaLOEt (1a) and NaL*OEt (1b) with SnCl2, yielded the rare four-coordinate LOEtSnCl (2a) and L*OEtSnCl (2b) complexes. Accordingly, LOEtSnPh3 (3a) and L*OEtSnPh3 (3b) were prepared, starting from Ph3SnCl. Characterization includes spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction studies for 2a, 2b and 3b. The antiplatelet activity of the lead complexes 2b and 3a (IC50 = 0.5 µΜ) is superior compared to that of 1a and 1b, while both complexes display a pronounced inhibitory activity against thrombin (IC50 = 1.8 µM and 0.6 µM). The in vitro cytotoxic activities of 3a and 2b on human Jurkat T lymphoblastic tumor cell line is higher than that of cisplatin.

A Possible Natural and Inexpensive Substitute for Lapis Lazuli in the Frederick II Era: The Finding of Haüyne in Blue Lead-Tin Glazed Pottery from Melfi Castle (Italy).

The blue color of glass and ceramic glazes produced in Apulia and Basilicata (Southern Italy) between the 13th and 14th centuries and connected to the Norman-Swabian Emperor Frederick II, has been, for a long time, under archaeometric investigation. On the one hand, it has usually been associated with lapis lazuli, due to the finding of the polysulphide blue chromophores typical of lazurite. Moreover, the observation that the mineral haüyne, which belongs to the sodalite group as well as lazurite, can be blue and/or can gain a blue color after heating, due to the same chromophores, has caused this automatic attribution to be questioned, and also considering that the mineral is characteristic of the rock haüynophyre of Melfi (Potenza, Southern Italy), a location of interest for glass and pottery findings. In this paper, for the first time, several haüyne crystals were found in the blue glaze of a ceramic dish found at Melfi Castle, leading to the hypothesis that, in this case, the local haüyne-bearing source could have been used as the coloring raw material. The discovery was possible thanks to SEM-EDS and Raman analyses that, respectively, highlighted the typical numerous presence of very fine sulphur-based inclusions in the crystals and the characteristic Raman signal of blue haüyne. This study was also focused on the composition of the crystals inclusions, aided by SEM-EDS and Raman maps, since the original very fine pyrrhotite was transformed into Cu and Pb phases (copper sulphates, copper sulphides, and lead oxide) due to reactions with cations that had mobilized from the glaze, while the migration of Si from the glass allowed the transformation of the rim of the haüyne, a silica-undersaturated mineral, into a corona of small euhedral and neomorphic Pb-rich feldspars, a silica-saturated phase.

Molecular Characteristics of Water-Insoluble Tin-Porphyrins for Designing the One-Photon-Induced Two-Electron Oxidation of Water in Artificial Photosynthesis.

Faced with the new stage of water oxidation by molecular catalysts (MCs) in artificial photosynthesis to overcome the bottle neck issue, the "Photon-flux density problem of sunlight," a two-electron oxidation process forming H2O2 in place of the conventional four-electron oxidation evolving O2 has attracted much attention. The molecular characteristics of tin(IV)-tetrapyridylporphyrin (SnTPyP), as one of the most promising MCs for the two-electron water oxidation, has been studied in detail. The protolytic equilibria among nine species of SnTPyP, with eight pKa values on the axial ligands' water molecules and peripheral pyridyl nitrogen atoms in both the ground and excited states, have been clarified through the measurements of UV-vis, fluorescence, 1H NMR, and dynamic fluorescence decay behaviour. The oxidation potentials in the Pourbaix diagram and spin densities by DFT calculation of the one-electron oxidized form of each nine species have predicted that the fully deprotonated species ([SnTPyP(O-)2]2-) and the singly deprotonated one ([SnTPyP(OH)(O-)]-) serve as the most favourable MCs for visible light-induced two-electron water oxidation when they are adsorbed on TiO2 for H2 formation or SnO2 for Z-scheme CO2 reduction in the molecular catalyst sensitized system of artificial photosynthesis.

"Mars Bar and a Tin of Red Bull Kept Me and My Patients Alive": Exploring Barriers to Healthy Eating through Facebook Comments of Shiftworkers.

The negative impact of an unhealthy diet on the shiftworker population has been well-documented. However, little evidence exists on the underlying reasons for unhealthy eating behaviours and the existing barriers to healthy eating withinshiftwork environments. This qualitative study investigated the dietary behaviours reported by shiftworkers through Facebook comments. Comments were collected if they were on public shiftworker-relevant posts pertaining to dietary news or dietary information on Facebook and were posted by self-identified shiftworkers, relatives of shiftworkers, or partners of shiftworkers. A thematic analysis of the 144 comments collected generated four categories that can be used to understand the motivations for eating behaviour on-shift: what shiftworkers eat, where food is sourced from, when food is eaten, and why certain foods are chosen. Results reveal motivations, attitudes, and both internal and external barriers to healthy eating behaviours, as well as similarities and differences across shiftwork industries. Recommendations for future research include further explorations on the link between scheduled eating (e.g., time-restricted eating) and shiftwork, the impact of a rotating shift arrangements on dietary health behaviours, and the impact of interpersonal relationships on shiftworker dietary choices. Understanding these motivations will inform strategies to promote healthy eating and help understand barriers for shiftworkers.

A step towards achieving SDG 2030 agenda: Analyzing the predictive power of information globalization amidst technological innovation-environmental stewardship nexus in the greenest economies.

Through the transition of novel ideas, products, technologies, and business models, info-globalization facilitates the flow and expansion of cross-border information and resources. In the meantime, this stimulates the potential of informational globalization and the internet for environmental and other technological advancements, and assists to the realization of cleaner and greener production and consumption. However, prior studies have completely disregarded this facet of globalization. Thus, this novel study evaluates the role of technological innovation (TIN) and information globalization (ING) in predicting ecological footprints (EFP) and carbon emissions (CO2) in the world's top ten greenest economies. Besides, this study also unveils the moderating role of TIN and ING for environmental sustainability. The novel research employs non-parametric causality-in-quantiles approaches on quarterly data from 1994Q1 to 2019Q4 in order to quantify for causality-in-mean and causality-in-variance, since there may be no causation at first moment, but higher-order interdependencies may exist. The findings revealed that TIN and ING possess significant predictive potential for both ecological footprint and carbon emissions, indicating asymmetric predictability over environmental sustainability. Moreover, TIN and ING asserted a significant interaction role when it comes to predicting pollution levels in chosen countries. Overall, it is essential to note that natural resource conservation and pollution mitigation via green and technical innovation become a dilemma since pollution has no boundaries and will always stoke fires beyond them. The provision of financial and R&D assistance, as well as the use of mass and social media to raise awareness not only in their own regions but also in neighboring countries, might contribute to the achievement of SDG 13 and Cope26's ambition of cutting pollution by 2030.

Photofunctionalized TiO2-TiN micropattern coating with anticoagulant properties and ECs contact-guidance effect.

Titanium nitride (TiN) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) are two titanium-based coatings commonly used in cardiovascular stent surface engineering. Generally, TiN has good mechanical properties and endothelial cell (ECs) compatibility but poor anticoagulant properties and cannot modulate cell growth orientation and morphology. TiO2 has excellent corrosion resistance and biosafety. Besides, TiO2 has the photocatalytic anticoagulant property, which can migrate to other materials tens of microns away. Based on the above properties, a striped TiO2-TiN micropattern coating was designed and fabricated in this study, and the coating was photofunctionalized by UV irradiation. The obtained photo-functionalized TiO2-TiN micropattern coating showed anticoagulant properties by the migrating effect of the photocatalytic anticoagulant property of TiO2. Besides, the TiO2-TiN micropattern coatings showed ECs compatibility. Furthermore, the growth orientation and cell shape of ECs on TiO2-TiN samples were effectively regulated by the stripe pattern's contact guidance effect, which was particularly evident on the photo-functionalized TiO2-TiN samples. We envision that this photofunctionalized TiO2-TiN striped micropattern coating has significant potential for the surface engineering of vascular stents.

Study of soil-to-plant transfer factors (TFs) of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K on plants cultivated on ex-tin mining land in Bangka Belitung, Indonesia.

Soil-to-plant transfer factors (TFs) are of fundamental importance in measuring the environmental impact due to the presence of radioactivity in soil and agricultural crops. The present study thus to measure soil-to-plant TFs of 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K on horticultural plants cultivated on ex-tin mining land in Bangka Belitung islands. There were 21 samples of 15 species and 13 families from 17 locations comprising four vegetables species, five fruits species, three staple foods species, and three others. The TFs were measured in leaves, fruit, cereal, kernel, shoot, or rhizome. The results showed that 238U and 137Cs were almost not found in plants, whereas 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K were measured. In soursop leaf, common pepper leaf, and cassava peel, on 226Ra, the TFs for the non-edible parts, (0.42 ± 0.02; 1.05 ± 0.17; 0.32 ± 0.01 respectively) were significantly higher than soursop fruit, common pepper seed, and cassava root for the edible parts (0.01 ± 0.005; 0.29 ± 0.09; 0.04 ± 0.02 respectively).

Thermodynamic determination of condensation behavior for the precursory elements of radioxenon following an underground nuclear explosion.

The measurement of radioactive xenon isotopes (radioxenon) in the atmosphere is a tool used to detect underground nuclear explosions, provided that some radioxenon escaped containment and that fractionation leading to the alteration of the relative proportions of these isotopes, is accounted for. After the explosion, volatilization followed by melting of the surrounding rocks produces a magma where the more refractory radioactive species get dissolved while the more volatile ones contribute to the gas phase that might escape. Indium, tin, antimony, tellurium and iodine are the main fission products involved in the decay chains leading to radioxenon. In this study, condensation as a function of temperature for these precursors of radioxenon were determined using thermodynamic calculations for systems with complex chemical composition corresponding to major environments of known underground nuclear explosions and for a range of pressure values representative of the cavity evolution. Our results illustrate a large difference between the relevant condensation temperatures for the radioxenon precursors and the tabulated boiling temperatures of the pure compounds often used as indicators of their volatility. For some precursory elements such as tin, the often-considered Heaviside function represents an oversimplification of the concept of condensation temperature, as condensation occurs over a temperature range as large as 2000 K. This results from the speciation of the elements in the gas phase mainly driven by the formation of oxides. Condensation also strongly depends on pressure while it moderately depends on the bulk chemical composition of the system. This study shows the importance and complexity of the condensation process following underground nuclear explosions. It also shows how thermodynamic computations allow the prediction of the quantity and the relative proportions of radioactive xenon isotopes in the gas phase in the presence of magma, before their potential emission to the atmosphere. Better detection, discrimination and understanding of underground nuclear explosions should arise by taking into account the fractionation resulting from the condensation of the radionuclides producing radioxenon in nuclear cavities.

High sensitivity for detecting trace Sn2+ in canned food using novel covalent organic frameworks.

Tin (Sn) element plays a vital role in the human body, and its detection is a mandatory inspection item for canned food. The application of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) in fluorescence detection has received extensive attentions. In this work, we designed a kind of novel COFs (COF-ETTA-DMTA) with high specific surface area (353.13 m2/g) by solvothermal synthesis using 2,5-dimethoxy-1,4-dialdehyde and tetra (4-aminophenyl) ethylene as precursors. It shows fast response time (about 50 s), low detection limit (228 nM) and good linearity (R2 = 0.9968) for the detection of Sn2+. Via coordination behavior, the recognition mechanism of COFs toward Sn2+ was simulated and verified by the small molecule with the same functional unit. More importantly, this COFs was successfully applied to identify Sn2+ in solid canned food (luncheon pork, canned fish, canned red kidney beans) with satisfactory results. This work provides a new approach for determining metal ions with COFs taking the advantage of their natural rich reaction set and specific surface area, improving the detection sensitivity and capacity.

Integration of EBPR with mainstream anammox process to treat real municipal wastewater: Process performance and microbiology.

The mainstream application of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) for sustainable N removal remains a challenge. Similarly, with recent additional stringent regulations for P discharges, it is imperative to integrate N with P removal. This research studied integrated fixed film activated sludge (IFAS) technology to simultaneously remove N and P in real municipal wastewater by combining biofilm anammox with flocculent activated sludge for enhanced biological P removal (EBPR). This technology was assessed in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) operated as a conventional A2O (anaerobic-anoxic-oxic) process with a hydraulic retention time of 8.8 h. After a steady state operation was reached, robust reactor performance was obtained with average TIN and P removal efficiencies of 91.3 ± 4.1% and 98.4 ± 2.4%, respectively. The average TIN removal rate recorded over the last 100 d of reactor operation was 118 mg/L·d, which is a reasonable number for mainstream applications. The activity of denitrifying polyphosphate accumulating organisms (DPAOs) accounted for nearly 15.9% of P-uptake during the anoxic phase. DPAOs and canonical denitrifiers removed approximately 5.9 mg TIN/L in the anoxic phase. Batch activity assays, which showed that nearly 44.5% of TIN were removed by the biofilms during the aerobic phase. The functional gene expression data also confirmed anammox activities. The IFAS configuration of the SBR allowed operation at a low solid retention time (SRT) of 5-d without washing out biofilm ammonium-oxidizing and anammox bacteria. The low SRT, combined with low dissolved oxygen and intermittent aeration, provided a selective pressure to washout nitrite-oxidizing bacteria and glycogen-accumulating organisms, as relative abundances of.

A precise TIN clipping algorithm for the digital mining design of the opencast coal mine.

The triangulated irregular network (TIN) clipping algorithm is one of the vital algorithms for the digital mining design of opencast coal mines based on the geological digital elevation model (DEM) described by TIN. This paper gives a precise TIN clipping algorithm applied in the digital mining design of the opencast coal mine. To improve the algorithm's efficiency, a spatial grid index is built and utilized to embed the Clipping Polygon (CP) into the Clipped TIN (CTIN) by interpolating the CP's vertices' elevation and solving the intersections of the CP and the CTIN. After that, the topology of the triangles situated within (outside of) the CP is reconstructed, and then the boundary polygon of those triangles is obtained based on the reconstructed topology. Finally, a new boundary TIN between the CP and the boundary polygon of the triangles situated within (outside of) the CP is generated by applying the one-time edge-prior constrained Delaunay triangulation (CDT) growth algorithm, and the TIN to be clipped out is separated from the CTIN by topology modification. At that point, CTIN clipping is accomplished with the local details remaining. The algorithm has been programmed in C# and.NET. Additionally, it is also applied to the opencast coal mine digital mining design practice, and it is robust and highly efficient.

The importance of nutrient ratios in determining elevations in geosmin synthase (geoA) and 2-MIB cyclase (mic) resulting in taste and odour events.

Geosmin synthase (geoA) and 2-MIB cyclase (mic) are key biosynthetic genes responsible for the production of taste and odour (T&O) compounds, geosmin and 2-MIB. These T&O compounds are becoming an increasing global problem for drinking water supplies. It is thought that geosmin and 2-MIB may be linked to, or exacerbated by, a variety of different environmental and nutrient triggers. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies to date have evaluated the combined effects of seasonality, temperature, and nutrient concentrations on geoA and mic copy numbers in conjunction with T&O concentrations. In this study, environmental triggers behind geosmin and 2-MIB production were investigated in nine reservoirs across Wales, U.K. between July 2019 - August 2020. The abundance of geoA and mic were quantified through quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR). Temporal changes in geoA and geosmin concentrations revealed geoA to be an indicator of monthly geosmin concentrations, although only when geosmin concentrations exceeded 100 ng L-1. Model analysis of a reservoir with elevated geosmin concentrations revealed geoA to be significantly associated with mean temperature (p < 0.001) and the nutrients dissolved reactive silicate (p < 0.001), dissolved iron (p < 0.001), total inorganic nitrogen to phosphorous ratio (TIN:TP) (p < 0.001) and ammonium to nitrate ratio (NH4+:NO3-) (p < 0.001). Sulphate also demonstrated a significant positive linear relationship with geoA (p < 0.001). For mic analysis, NH4+:NO3- was significantly associated with mic (p < 0.05) and an association with dissolved reactive silicate was also observed (p = 0.084). Within this study we also report extreme variance in gene copy numbers between the study seasons. No consistent relationship could be determined for mic copy numbers mL-1 and 2-MIB (ng L-1). The findings from this study indicate that TIN:TP and NH4+:NO3- serve as good predictors for elevated geoA and mic, along with negative linear relationships observed for mean temperature and dissolved reactive silicate. Overall, our findings demonstrate the importance of nutrient concentrations, nutrient ratios and temperature for evidence based predictive capacity of taste and odour events in drinking water reservoirs.

Nafion Modified Titanium Nitride pH Sensor for Future Biomedical Applications.

pH sensors are increasingly being utilized in the biomedical field and have been implicated in health applications that aim to improve the monitoring and treatment of patients. In this work, a previously developed Titanium Nitride (TiN) solid-state pH sensor is further enhanced, with the potential to be used for pH regulation inside the human body and for other biomedical, industrial, and environmental applications. One of the main limitations of existing solid-state pH sensors is their reduced performance in high redox mediums. The potential shift E0 value of the previously developed TiN pH electrode in the presence of oxidizing or reducing agents is 30 mV. To minimize this redox shift, a Nafion-modified TiN electrode was developed, tested, and evaluated in various mediums. The Nafion-modified electrode has been shown to shift the E0 value by only 2 mV, providing increased accuracy in highly redox samples while maintaining acceptable reaction times. Overcoming the redox interference for pH measurement enables several advantages of the Nafion-modified TiN electrode over the standard pH glass electrode, implicating its use in medical diagnosis, real-time health monitoring, and further development of miniaturized smart sensors.

Superior nitrogen removal and efficient sludge reduction via partial nitrification-anammox driven by addition of sludge fermentation products for real sewage treatment.

Efficient retention and enrichment of anammox bacteria (AnAOB) are essential for the application of municipal wastewater anammox. Herein, an innovative process for highly enriching AnAOB within suspended carrier was developed in a single-stage anaerobic/oxic/anoxic reactor with 5.5 % carrier filling ratio for real sewage. Addition of sludge fermentation products promoted stable maintenance of partial nitrification (nitrite accumulation rate > 90.0 %) and achieved efficient external sludge reduction (27.6-37.9 %). Continuous nitrite supply and carrier addition promoted AnAOB enrichment (2.4 × 1011 gene copies/g dry sludge). Candidatus Brocadia was the predominant bacteria in carriers (18.6 %). The average effluents of total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) and NH4+-N were 1.9 and 0.8 mg/L with removal rates of 97.0 % and 98.7 %. In the anoxic stage, TIN removal rate reached 71.5 %, and the proportion of anammox to nitrogen removal accounted for 82.7 %. This study broadens the application of mainstream sewage anammox and the resource utilization of waste activated sludge.

One-step separation of tin from e-waste by a chemical vapor transport process (CVT): Preparation of nano-SnO2.

E-waste is a valuable resource for the recovery of secondary metals. However, traditional methods only focused on the extraction of Cu and noble metals (Au, Ag, etc.), and significant tin (Sn) loss occurred during the smelting or the leached. In this paper, a novel chemical vapor transport (CVT) process was proposed to separate and recycle Sn from e-waste to prepare nano-SnO2. The effect of roasting parameters on Sn volatilization and characterization of nano-SnO2 were investigated using thermodynamic analysis, XRD, SEM, TEM, etc. The results indicated that Sn volatilization of 92.8 % was obtained under optimal roasting parameters under CO-CO2-N2 atmosphere. In addition, nano-SnO2 with a crystallinity of 99.9 %, an average grain size of 24.8 nm and a specific surface area of 97.9 m2/g was synthesized successfully.

Nafion Modified Titanium Nitride pH Sensor for Future Biomedical Applications.

pH sensors are increasingly being utilized in the biomedical field and have been implicated in health applications that aim to improve the monitoring and treatment of patients. In this work, a previously developed Titanium Nitride (TiN) solid-state pH sensor is further enhanced, with the potential to be used for pH regulation inside the human body and for other biomedical, industrial, and environmental applications. One of the main limitations of existing solid-state pH sensors is their reduced performance in high redox mediums. The potential shift E0 value of the previously developed TiN pH electrode in the presence of oxidizing or reducing agents is 30 mV. To minimize this redox shift, a Nafion-modified TiN electrode was developed, tested, and evaluated in various mediums. The Nafion-modified electrode has been shown to shift the E0 value by only 2 mV, providing increased accuracy in highly redox samples while maintaining acceptable reaction times. Overcoming the redox interference for pH measurement enables several advantages of the Nafion-modified TiN electrode over the standard pH glass electrode, implicating its use in medical diagnosis, real-time health monitoring, and further development of miniaturized smart sensors.

Ancestral chromosomal signatures of Paenungulata (Afroteria) reveal the karyotype of Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis, Sirenia: Trichechidae) as the oldest among American manatees.

BACKGROUND: Chromosomal painting in manatees has clarified questions about the rapid evolution of sirenians within the Paenungulata clade. Further cytogenetic studies in Afrotherian species may provide information about their evolutionary dynamics, revealing important insights into the ancestral karyotype in the clade representatives. The karyotype of Trichechus inunguis (TIN, Amazonian manatee) was investigated by chromosome painting, using probes from Trichechus manatus latirostris (TML, Florida manatee) to analyze the homeologies between these sirenians. RESULTS: A high similarity was found between these species, with 31 homologous segments in TIN, nineteen of which are whole autosomes, besides the X and Y sex chromosomes. Four chromosomes from TML (4, 6, 8, and 9) resulted in two hybridization signals, totaling eight acrocentrics in the TIN karyotype. This study confirmed in TIN the chromosomal associations of Homo sapiens (HSA) shared in Afrotheria, such as the 5/21 synteny, and in the Paenungulata clade with the syntenies HSA 2/3, 8/22, and 18/19, in addition to the absence of HSA 4/8 common in eutherian ancestral karyotype (EAK). CONCLUSIONS: TIN shares more conserved chromosomal signals with the Paenungulata Ancestral Karyotype (APK, 2n = 58) than Procavia capensis (Hyracoidea), Loxodonta africana (Proboscidea) and TML (Sirenia), where TML presents less conserved signals with APK, demonstrating that its karyotype is the most derived among the representatives of Paenungulata. The chromosomal changes that evolved from APK to the T. manatus and T. inunguis karyotypes (7 and 4 changes, respectively) are more substantial within the Trichechus genus compared to other paenungulates. Among these species, T. inunguis presents conserved traits of APK in the American manatee genus. Consequently, the karyotype of T. manatus is more derived than that of T. inunguis.

Ultrasensitive Room-Temperature NO2 Detection Using SnS2/MWCNT Composites and Accelerated Recovery Kinetics by UV Activation.

High performance with lower power consumption is one among the essential features of a sensing device. Minute traces of hazardous gases such as NO2 are difficult to detect. Tin disulfide (SnS2) nanosheets have emerged as a promising NO2 sensor. However, their poor room-temperature conductivity gives rise to inferior sensitivity and sluggish recovery rates, thereby hindering their applications. To mitigate this problem, we present a low-cost ultrasensitive NO2 gas sensor with tin disulfide/multiwalled carbon nanotube (SnS2/MWCNT) nanocomposites, prepared using a single-step hydrothermal method, as sensing elements. Relative to pure SnS2, the conductivity of nanocomposites improved significantly. The sensor displayed a decrease in resistance when exposed to NO2, an oxidizing gas, and exhibited p-type conduction, also confirmed in separate Mott-Schottky measurements. At a temperature of 20 °C, the sensor device has a relative response of about ≈5% (3%) for 25 ppb (1 ppb) of NO2 with complete recovery in air (10 min) and excellent recovery rates with UV activation (0.3 min). A theoretical lower limit of detection (LOD) of 7 ppt implies greater sensitivity than all previously reported SnS2-based gas sensors, to the best of our knowledge. The improved sensing characteristics were attributed to the formation of nano p-n heterojunctions, which enhances the charge transport and gives rise to faster response. The composite sensor also demonstrated good NO2 selectivity against a variety of oxidizing and reducing gases, as well as excellent stability and long-term durability. This work will provide a fresh perspective on SnS2-based composite materials for practical gas sensors.