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Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Oct 2023Intrauterine exposure to heavy metals may adversely affect the developing fetus and health later in life, while certain trace elements may be protective. There is...
Intrauterine exposure to heavy metals may adversely affect the developing fetus and health later in life, while certain trace elements may be protective. There is limited data on their dynamic fluctuation in circulating concentration of women from preconception to pregnancy and the degree of transplacental passage to fetus. Such information is critically needed for an optimal design of research studies and intervention strategies. In the present study, we profiled the longitudinal patterns and trajectories of metal(loid)s and trace elements from preconception to late pregnancy and in newborns. We measured whole blood metal(loid)s in women at preconception, 16, 24 and 32 weeks of gestation and in cord blood in 100 mother-newborn pairs. Our data showed that the mean concentrations of mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), rubidium (Rb), manganese (Mn), and iron (Fe) were lower during early-, mid-, and late-pregnancy than at preconception. Copper (Cu), and calcium (Ca) concentrations increased after pregnancy (Cu 798 versus 1353, 1488, and 1464 μg/L). Concentrations at preconception were correlated with those during pregnancy for all examined metal(loid)s. Maternal Hg, Pb, and Se concentrations at late-pregnancy were correlated with those in newborn cord blood in various degrees (correlation coefficients: Hg 0.66, Pb 0.29, Se 0.39). The estimated placental transfer ratio for toxic metal(loid)s ranging from 1.68 (Hg) to 0.18 (Cd). Two trajectory groups were identified for Hg, Pb, Cd, Se concentrations. Hg concentrations may be correlated with maternal education levels. The study is the first to present longitudinal circulating concentration trajectories of toxic metal(loid)s and trace elements from preconception to pregnancy stages. A high degree of transplacental passage was observed in toxic metals Pb and Hg which may pose hazards to the developing fetus.
Topics: Female; Infant, Newborn; Pregnancy; Humans; Trace Elements; Cadmium; Lead; Placenta; Metals, Heavy; Mercury; Heavy Metal Poisoning; Fetal Blood
PubMed: 37625333
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115394 -
International Journal of Molecular... Aug 2023This study aims to determine the association of non-essential trace elements present in follicular fluid, plasma, and urine with reproductive outcomes of women...
Bioaccumulation of Non-Essential Trace Elements Detected in Women's Follicular Fluid, Urine, and Plasma Is Associated with Poor Reproductive Outcomes following Single Euploid Embryo Transfer: A Pilot Study.
This study aims to determine the association of non-essential trace elements present in follicular fluid, plasma, and urine with reproductive outcomes of women undergoing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT-A) and single frozen euploid embryo transfer (SET/FET). This single-center, prospective cohort study included sixty women undergoing ICSI with PGT-A and SET/FET between 2018 and 2019. Urine, plasma and follicular fluid samples were collected on the vaginal oocyte retrieval day to simultaneously quantify ten non-essential trace elements (i.e., Ba, Sr, Rb, Sn, Ti, Pb, Cd, Hg, Sb, and As). We found several associations between the levels of these non-essential trace elements and clinical IVF parameters. Specifically, the increased levels of barium in follicular fluid were negatively associated with ovarian function, pre-implantation development and embryo euploidy, while elevated strontium concentrations in this biofluid were negatively associated with impaired blastulation and embryo euploidy. Elevated plasma strontium levels were negatively associated with ovarian function, fertilization and blastulation. Enhanced presence of other trace elements in plasma (i.e., rubidium and arsenic) were associated with a diminished ovarian function and limited the number of recovered oocytes, mature oocytes and zygotes, respectively. Fully adjusted models suggested significantly lower odds of achieving a live birth when increased concentrations of barium and tin were found in urine.
Topics: Male; Female; Humans; Trace Elements; Pilot Projects; Bioaccumulation; Barium; Follicular Fluid; Prospective Studies; Semen; Embryo Transfer; Aneuploidy
PubMed: 37685954
DOI: 10.3390/ijms241713147 -
Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety Jan 2024Central obesity has increased rapidly over the past decade and posed a substantial disease burden worldwide. Exposure to metals/metalloids has been acknowledged to be...
Central obesity has increased rapidly over the past decade and posed a substantial disease burden worldwide. Exposure to metals/metalloids has been acknowledged to be involved in the development of central obesity through regulation of cortisol, insulin resistance, and glucocorticoid receptor reduction. Despite the importance, it is lack of prospective study which comprehensively evaluate the relations between multiple metals exposure and central obesity. We explored the prospective associations of plasma metal concentrations with central obesity in a prospective study of the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort. The present study included 2127 participants with a 6.87-year mean follow-up duration. We measured 23 plasma metal/metalloid concentrations at baseline. The associations between metals and incident central obesity were examined utilizing the Cox proportional hazard regression in single and multiple metals models. Additionally, we applied elastic net (ENET), Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR), plasma metal score (PMS), and quantile-based g-computation (Qgcomp) models to explore the joint associations of metal mixtures with central obesity. After adjusting potential confounders, we found significant associations of plasma manganese (Mn) and thallium (Tl) concentrations with a higher risk of central obesity, whereas plasma rubidium (Rb) concentration was associated with a lower risk of central obesity both in single and multiple metals models (all FDR <0.05). The ENET and Qqcomp models verified similar metals (Mn, Rb, and Tl) as important predictors for central obesity. The results of both BKMR model and PMS suggested cumulative exposure to metal mixtures was associated with a higher risk of central obesity. Our findings suggested that co-exposure to metals was associated with a higher risk of central obesity. This study expands our knowledge that the management of metals/metalloids exposure may be beneficial for the prevention of new-onset central obesity, which may subsequently alleviate the disease burden of late-life health outcomes.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Prospective Studies; Obesity, Abdominal; Bayes Theorem; Metals; Manganese; Obesity; Metalloids; Thallium; China
PubMed: 38128312
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.115838 -
Chemical Science Oct 2023The electrochemical insertion of Rb into carbonaceous materials, including graphite, was achieved herein. Rubidium ions were reversibly inserted into and extracted from...
The electrochemical insertion of Rb into carbonaceous materials, including graphite, was achieved herein. Rubidium ions were reversibly inserted into and extracted from graphite electrochemical processes using different non-aqueous electrolytes containing rubidium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide (RbTFSA) salts in carbonate esters, glymes, and ionic liquids, similar to the process used for other lighter alkali metal ions such as Li and K. The chemical compositions of the rubidiated graphite were determined to be RbC, RbC, and RbC at each step of the electrochemical reduction process. Graphite underwent a phase transition to RbC exhibiting a stage-1 structure, with stage-3 RbC and stage-2 RbC as intermediates, as confirmed by and X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, similar to the electrochemical phase evolution of staged potassium graphite intercalation compounds (K-GICs). Furthermore, Rb was reversibly inserted into and extracted from graphitizable and non-graphitizable carbons such as pitch-derived soft carbon and commercial hard carbon, along with other alkali metals such as Li, Na, and K.
PubMed: 37860642
DOI: 10.1039/d3sc03281g -
Scientific Reports Dec 2023Quantitative assessment of polarization properties of waves opens up the way for effective exploitation of them in many amazing applications. Tamm surface waves (TSW)...
Quantitative assessment of polarization properties of waves opens up the way for effective exploitation of them in many amazing applications. Tamm surface waves (TSW) that propagate on the interface of periodic dielectric media are proposed for many applications in numerous reports. The polarization state of TSW is not simply intuitive and would not be extracted from reflection spectra. Here considering orientation sensitive nature of the interaction between polarized electromagnetic wave and atom, we try to quantitatively characterize the polarization state of TSWs, excited on the surface of the 1D photonic crystal. To do this we performed direct contact between TSW and rubidium atomic gas by fabrication of a one-dimensional photonic crystal-atomic vapor cell and applied a moderate external magnetic field to create geometrical meaning and a sense of directionality to dark lines in reflection intensity. Our experimental results indicate that transition lines in the reflection spectrum of our hybrid system modify dependent on the orientation of the applied magnetic field and the transverse spin of TSW. We have used these changes to redefine the geometry of Voigt and Faraday for evanescent waves, especially Tamm surface waves. In the end, we performed simple mathematical operations on absorption spectra and extract the ratio of longitudinal and transverse electric field components of the polarization vector of TSW equal to [Formula: see text].
PubMed: 38066063
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49324-6 -
European Journal of Nuclear Medicine... Jun 2024Long axial field-of-view (LAFOV) positron emission tomography (PET) systems allow to image all major organs with one bed position, which is particularly useful for...
PURPOSE
Long axial field-of-view (LAFOV) positron emission tomography (PET) systems allow to image all major organs with one bed position, which is particularly useful for acquiring whole-body dynamic data using short-lived radioisotopes like Rb.
METHODS
We determined the absorbed dose in target organs of three subjects (29, 40, and 57 years old) using two different methods, i.e., MIRD and voxel dosimetry. The subjects were injected with 407.0 to 419.61 MBq of [Rb]Cl and were scanned dynamically for 7 min with a LAFOV PET/CT scanner.
RESULTS
Using the MIRD formalism and voxel dosimetry, the absorbed dose ranged from 1.84 to 2.78 μGy/MBq (1.57 to 3.92 μGy/MBq for voxel dosimetry) for the heart wall, 2.76 to 5.73 μGy/MBq (3.22 to 5.37 μGy/MBq for voxel dosimetry) for the kidneys, and 0.94 to 1.88 μGy/MBq (0.98 to 1.92 μGy/MBq for voxel dosimetry) for the lungs. The total body effective dose lied between 0.50 and 0.76 μSv/MBq.
CONCLUSION
Our study suggests that the radiation dose associated with [Rb]Cl PET/CT can be assessed by means of dynamic LAFOV PET and that it is lower compared to literature values.
Topics: Humans; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography; Middle Aged; Adult; Radiometry; Rubidium Radioisotopes; Male; Radiation Dosage; Female
PubMed: 38407598
DOI: 10.1007/s00259-024-06660-7 -
Simulation and Synthesis in Medical... Oct 2023The rapid tracer kinetics of rubidium-82 (Rb) and high variation of cross-frame distribution in dynamic cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) raise significant...
The rapid tracer kinetics of rubidium-82 (Rb) and high variation of cross-frame distribution in dynamic cardiac positron emission tomography (PET) raise significant challenges for inter-frame motion correction, particularly for the early frames where conventional intensity-based image registration techniques are not applicable. Alternatively, a promising approach utilizes generative methods to handle the tracer distribution changes to assist existing registration methods. To improve frame-wise registration and parametric quantification, we propose a Temporally and Anatomically Informed Generative Adversarial Network (TAI-GAN) to transform the early frames into the late reference frame using an all-to-one mapping. Specifically, a feature-wise linear modulation layer encodes channel-wise parameters generated from temporal tracer kinetics information, and rough cardiac segmentations with local shifts serve as the anatomical information. We validated our proposed method on a clinical Rb PET dataset and found that our TAI-GAN can produce converted early frames with high image quality, comparable to the real reference frames. After TAI-GAN conversion, motion estimation accuracy and clinical myocardial blood flow (MBF) quantification were improved compared to using the original frames. Our code is published at https://github.com/gxq1998/TAI-GAN.
PubMed: 38464964
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-44689-4_7 -
Journal of Nuclear Cardiology :... Dec 2023Little is known about the gatekeeper performance of coronary artery calcium score (CACS) before myocardial perfusion positron emission tomography (PET), compared with...
BACKGROUND
Little is known about the gatekeeper performance of coronary artery calcium score (CACS) before myocardial perfusion positron emission tomography (PET), compared with updated pre-test probabilities from American and European guidelines (pre-test-AHA/ACC, pre-test-ESC).
METHODS
We enrolled participants without known coronary artery disease undergoing CACS and Rubidium-82 PET. Abnormal perfusion was defined as summed stress score ≥ 4. Using Bayes' formula, pre-test probabilities and CACS were combined into post-test probabilities.
RESULTS
We included 2050 participants (54% male, mean age 64.6 years) with median CACS 62 (IQR 0-380), pre-test-ESC 17% (11-26), pre-test-AHA/ACC 27% (16-44), and abnormal perfusion in 437 participants (21%). To predict abnormal perfusion, area under the curve of CACS was 0.81, pre-test-AHA/ACC 0.68, pre-test-ESC 0.69, post-test-AHA/ACC 0.80, and post-test-ESC 0.81 (P < 0.001 for CACS vs. each pre-test, and each post-test vs. pre-test). CACS = 0 had 97% negative predictive value (NPV), pre-test-AHA/ACC ≤ 5% 100%, pre-test-ESC ≤ 5% 98%, post-test-AHA/ACC ≤ 5% 98%, and post-test-ESC ≤ 5% 96%. Among participants, 26% had CACS = 0, 2% pre-test-AHA/ACC ≤ 5%, 7% pre-test-ESC ≤ 5%, 23% post-test-AHA/ACC ≤ 5%, and 33% post-test-ESC ≤ 5% (all P < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS
CACS and post-test probabilities are excellent predictors of abnormal perfusion and can rule it out with very high NPV in a substantial proportion of participants. CACS and post-test probabilities may be used as gatekeepers before advanced imaging. Coronary artery calcium score (CACS) predicted abnormal perfusion (SSS ≥ 4) in myocardial positron emission tomography (PET) better than pre-test probabilities of coronary artery disease (CAD), while pre-test-AHA/ACC and pre-test-ESC performed similarly (left). Using Bayes' formula, pre-test-AHA/ACC or pre-test-ESC were combined with CACS into post-test probabilities (middle). This calculation reclassified a substantial proportion of participants to low probability of CAD (0-5%), not needing further imaging, as shown for AHA/ACC probabilities (2% with pre-test-AHA/ACC to 23% with post-test-AHA/ACC, P < 0.001, right). Very few participants with abnormal perfusion were classified under pre-test or post-test probabilities 0-5%, or under CACS 0. AUC: area under the curve. Pre-test-AHA/ACC: Pre-test probability of the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology. Post-test-AHA/ACC: Post-test probability combining pre-test-AHA/ACC and CACS. Pre-test-ESC: Pre-test probability of the European Society of Cardiology. SSS: Summed stress score.
Topics: Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Female; Coronary Artery Disease; Calcium; Bayes Theorem; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Positron-Emission Tomography; Perfusion
PubMed: 37415007
DOI: 10.1007/s12350-023-03322-3 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2024The solar energy market is predicted to be shared between Si solar cells and third-generation photovoltaics in the future. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) show the...
The solar energy market is predicted to be shared between Si solar cells and third-generation photovoltaics in the future. Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) show the greatest potential to capture a share there as a single junction or in tandem with silicon. Researchers worldwide are looking to optimize the composition of the perovskite film to achieve an optimal bandgap, performance, and stability. Traditional perovskites have a mixture of formamidinium and methyl ammonium as the A-site cation in their ABX structure. However, in recent times, the use of cesium and rubidium has become popular for making highly efficient PSCs. A thorough analysis of the performance and stability of double-, triple-, and quadruple-cation PSCs under different environmental conditions was performed in this study. The performance of the device and the films was analyzed by electrical measurements (J-V, dark J-V, EQE), scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, photoluminescence, and X-ray diffraction. The quadruple-cation device with the formula CsRbFAMAPbIBr showed the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.7%. However, this device had the least stability under all conditions. The triple-cation device with the formula CsFAMAPbIBr, with a slightly lower PCE (21.2%), was considerably more stable, resulting in about 30% more energy harvested than that using the other two devices during their life cycle.
PubMed: 38930824
DOI: 10.3390/molecules29122758