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Experimental Dermatology Mar 2024As the largest organ, the skin provides the first line of defence against environmental pollutants. Different pollutants have varied damage to the skin due to their own...
As the largest organ, the skin provides the first line of defence against environmental pollutants. Different pollutants have varied damage to the skin due to their own physical-chemical properties. A previous epidemiological study by our team revealed that eczema was positively correlated with different air pollutants. However, the mechanism of action from different pollutants on the skin is less known. In this work, the differences among the genotoxicity, intracellular reactive oxygen species, and barrier-related parameters caused by two kinds of air pollutants, that is, S1650b and carbon black (CB) were investigated by Western blot, TUNEL, comet assay and RNA-sequences. The results indicated that both S1650b and CB caused DNA damage of keratinocytes. With the content of lipophilic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), S1650b leaked into the keratinocytes easily, which activated the aromatic hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) in keratinocytes, leading to worse damage to barrier-related proteins than CB. And CB-induced higher intracellular ROS than S1650b due to the smaller size which make it enter the keratinocytes easier. RNA-sequencing results revealed that S1650b and CB both caused DNA damage of keratinocytes, and the intervention of S1650b significantly upregulated AhR, cytochrome oxidase A1 and B1 (CYP1A1 and CYP1B1) genes, while the results showed oppositely after CB intervention. The mechanism of keratinocyte damage caused by different air particle pollutants in this study will help to expand our understanding on the air pollutant-associated skin disease at cell levels.
Topics: Soot; Particulate Matter; Keratinocytes; DNA Damage; Oxidative Stress; Air Pollutants; Environmental Pollutants; RNA
PubMed: 38439204
DOI: 10.1111/exd.15048 -
Applied Optics Feb 2024A single Raman cell configuration useful for DIAL ozone lidar is designed and optimized. The conversion efficiency and flexibility of using a single Raman cell filled...
A single Raman cell configuration useful for DIAL ozone lidar is designed and optimized. The conversion efficiency and flexibility of using a single Raman cell filled with a mixture of high pressure Raman active gases hydrogen ( ) and methane ( ) have been examined and reported. The stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) conversion efficiency of Raman active gases with different total cell pressures and the volume mixing ratio excited with a focused, frequency quadrupled Nd:YAG laser with a maximum pulse energy of 25 mJ and a pulse duration of 10 ns at 100 Hz repetition rate are examined in detail. The gas combination of : emits a coaxial beam of two wavelengths, 288.4 nm ( ) and 299.1 nm ( ), with a maximum total conversion efficiency of about 45%. The optimum volume mixing ratio for generating the required wavelength pair with almost equal energies is found to be 2:1 ( : ) at a total cell pressure of 18 bar. The contribution of cascade Raman scattering (CRS) and four-wave mixing (FWM) to the higher order Stokes lines is examined. The laser attenuation due to soot formation under various mixing ratios in the cell is also presented.
PubMed: 38437383
DOI: 10.1364/AO.503163 -
The Analyst Mar 2024Aerosol decrease is considered as one of the most important environmental challenges. The current study introduces a novel analytical method for accurate and precise...
Aerosol decrease is considered as one of the most important environmental challenges. The current study introduces a novel analytical method for accurate and precise detection and identification of different aerosols. The designed array-based spectroscopic method is based on "discrete fast Fourier transform"-assisted dual resonance ultraviolet-infrared spectroscopy for reliable quantitative/qualitative analysis of aerosols like fug, smog, silica-based micro-/nanoparticles, carbon soot, The detection system is arranged using a slice (5 × 5 cm) of a digital versatile disk as a simple, low-cost, available, and size-controllable wavelength selector (grating) and light reflector with control through a software program. The results show that this method is suitable for real-time detection of different types of chemical agent-modified particles with acceptable sensitivity and selectivity and improved detection limit.
PubMed: 38436064
DOI: 10.1039/d2an00411a -
Carbon Balance and Management Mar 2024Black carbon (BC) encompasses a range of carbonaceous materials--including soot, char, and charcoal--derived from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass.... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Black carbon (BC) encompasses a range of carbonaceous materials--including soot, char, and charcoal--derived from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. Urban soils can become enriched in BC due to proximity to these combustion sources. We conducted a literature review of BC in urban soils globally and found 26 studies reporting BC and total organic carbon (TOC) content collected to a maximum of 578 cm depth in urban soils across 35 cities and 10 countries. We recorded data on city, climate, and land use/land cover characteristics to examine drivers of BC content and contribution to TOC in soil.
RESULTS
All studies were conducted in the northern hemisphere, with 68% of the data points collected in China and the United States. Surface samples (0-20 cm) accounted for 62% of samples in the dataset. Therefore, we focused our analysis on 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depths. Urban soil BC content ranged from 0-124 mg/g (median = 3 mg/g) at 0-10 cm and from 0-53 mg/g (median = 2.8 mg/g) at 10-20 cm depth. The median proportional contribution of BC to TOC was 23% and 15% at 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm, respectively. Surface soils sampled in industrial land use and near roads had the highest BC contents and proportions, whereas samples from residential sites had among the lowest. Soil BC content decreased with mean annual soil temperature.
CONCLUSIONS
Our review indicates that BC comprises a major fraction (nearly one quarter) of the TOC in urban surface soils, yet sampling bias towards the surface could hide the potential for BC storage at depth. Land use emerged as an importer driver of soil BC contents and proportions, whereas land cover effects remain uncertain. Warmer and wetter soils were found to have lower soil BC than cooler and drier soils, differences that likely reflect soil BC loss mechanisms. Additional research on urban soil BC at depth and from diverse climates is critical to better understand the role of cities in the global carbon cycle.
PubMed: 38429441
DOI: 10.1186/s13021-024-00255-3 -
Trials Feb 2024Substance use disorder is associated with unhealthy lifestyle choices, resulting in adverse social and health consequences. People with opioid use disorder receiving...
BACKGROUND
Substance use disorder is associated with unhealthy lifestyle choices, resulting in adverse social and health consequences. People with opioid use disorder receiving opioid agonist therapy, in particular, have high morbidity and reduced quality of life. Physical activity is recommended as an adjunctive treatment for people with substance use disorder, but there is minimal evidence from randomized controlled trials on the effects of this among people with substance use disorder receiving opioid agonist therapy.
METHODS
BAReAktiv is a multicentre randomized controlled trial. The study aims to recruit 324 patients receiving opioid agonist therapy (parallel groups randomized 1:1 to integrated exercise intervention or control, superiority trial). A 16-week group-based integrated exercise intervention with workouts twice a week. The exercise program consists of endurance and resistance training. The target group will be patients 18 years and older receiving opioid agonist therapy in outpatient clinics in several centers in Western Norway. The primary outcome of the study is the effect on psychological distress measured by Hopkins' symptom checklist with ten items. Secondary outcome measures include physical functioning assessed with a 4-min step test, activity level, fatigue symptoms, quality of life, and changes in inflammation markers. This study will provide improved knowledge on the effects of an integrated exercise program in opioid agonist therapy.
DISCUSSION
Systematically integrating exercise programs for people receiving opioid agonist therapy could lead to a shift towards a stronger focus on health behaviors in outpatient care. Integrating exercise could benefit patient recovery and reduce disease burden. Further scale-up will be considered if the provided exercise program is safe and effective.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov. NCT05242848. Registered on February 16, 2022.
Topics: Humans; Analgesics, Opioid; Exercise; Exercise Therapy; Multicenter Studies as Topic; Opioid-Related Disorders; Psychological Distress; Quality of Life; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
PubMed: 38424609
DOI: 10.1186/s13063-024-07993-2 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2024Measuring soot concentration in a burner flame is essential for an in-depth understanding of the formation mechanism and to abate its generation. This paper presents an...
Measuring soot concentration in a burner flame is essential for an in-depth understanding of the formation mechanism and to abate its generation. This paper presents an improved emission spectroscopy (ES) method that uses an adaptive particle swarm optimization (APSO) algorithm for measuring the concentration of soot in methane burner flames. Experimental tests were conducted on a laboratory-scale facility under a methane flowrate ranging between 0.6 and 0.9 L/min. A comparison analysis of the soot concentration measured by the ES method, the improved emission spectroscopy (IES) method, and the thermocouple particle density (TPD) method (as a reference) was conducted. The ES method obtained a maximum absolute deviation of 0.84 ppm from the average soot concentration at the three measurement points compared to the TPD method, while that of the IES was only 0.09 ppm. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed IES method can obtain a more accurate soot concentration of diffusion flames.
PubMed: 38400449
DOI: 10.3390/s24041292 -
Cryobiology Jun 2024The restoration of initial functionality of human spermatozoa subjected to cryopreservation is challenging, because the deleterious intracellular icing and the...
Cryopreservation of human semen by inherently-controlled icing probability: Or how the surface profile of superhydrophobic carbon soot coatings and the sperm volume affect the outcome of slow freezing?
The restoration of initial functionality of human spermatozoa subjected to cryopreservation is challenging, because the deleterious intracellular icing and the occurrence of osmotic shocks due to prolonged exposure to increased concentrations of intracellular solutes are oppositely dependent on the cooling rate. This longstanding problem could be overcome if using superhydrophobic soot coatings delaying the heat transfer rate, reducing the ice formation probability and triggering balanced and timely dehydration of the cells, but the effect of their surface profile and sperm volume on the success rate of slow freezing is unclear. Here, we show for the first time that the two-factor freezing injury is entirely avoidable by tailoring the solid-to-gas voids (pores) fraction in the soot, leading to increased nucleation free energy barrier, presumable incipiency of ice crystals with controllable shape and size and hence, fully (100 %) recovered post-thaw sperm motility. It is demonstrated that the reason for such a unique scientific result is the selection of soot coatings with appropriate morphochemical features, hypothetically (not directly proven yet) inducing equilibrium among the solution composition and ice crystals formation, retarding the undesirable compression of liquid-filled "slush ice" channels surrounding the cytoplasm and impeding the ice recrystallization. The novel insights introduced in this article open endless horizon for customizing and revolutionizing the technical protocols in cryobiology.
Topics: Male; Humans; Cryopreservation; Semen Preservation; Spermatozoa; Sperm Motility; Freezing; Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; Ice; Surface Properties; Carbon; Cryoprotective Agents; Semen
PubMed: 38395186
DOI: 10.1016/j.cryobiol.2024.104863 -
Journal of Environmental Management Mar 2024Black carbon (BC) significantly affects climate, environmental quality, and human health. This study utilised Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and...
Black carbon (BC) significantly affects climate, environmental quality, and human health. This study utilised Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), which can compensate for the shortcomings of ground BC monitoring in spatial-temporal distribution to study the pollution characteristics of BC and potential pollution sources in a typical industrial city (Xinxiang) with serious air pollution in northern China. The results showed that average daily ground observation and MERRA-2 concentration of BC of 7.33 μg m and 9.52 μg m. The mean BC concentration derived from MERRA-2 reanalysis data was higher than ground measurement due to resolution limitations and pollution from the northern regions. The reliability of the MERRA-2 data was confirmed through correlation analysis. Consideration of the spatial distribution of BC from MERRA-2 and incorporating the potential source contribution function (PSCF), concentration-weighted trajectory (CWT), and emission inventory, other possible source areas and primary sources of BC in Xinxiang were investigated. The results indicated that implementing transportation and residential emission control measures in Henan Province and its surrounding provinces, such as Hebei Province, will effectively decrease the BC level in Xinxiang City. A passively smoked cigarettes model was used to evaluate the risk of BC exposure. The percentage of lung function decrement (PLFD) was the highest in school-age children, while the impact on lung cancer (LC) health risk was comparatively lower. Notably, the BC health risk in Xinxiang was lower than in most cities across Asia.
Topics: Child; Humans; Cities; Air Pollutants; Retrospective Studies; Reproducibility of Results; Environmental Monitoring; China; Air Pollution; Soot; Carbon; Particulate Matter
PubMed: 38387352
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.120367 -
Environmental Pollution (Barking, Essex... Apr 2024Current methods for measuring black carbon aerosol (BC) by optical methods apportion BC to fossil fuel and wood combustion. However, these results are aggregated: local...
Current methods for measuring black carbon aerosol (BC) by optical methods apportion BC to fossil fuel and wood combustion. However, these results are aggregated: local and non-local combustion sources are lumped together. The spatial apportioning of carbonaceous aerosol sources is challenging in remote or suburban areas because non-local sources may be significant. Air quality modeling would require highly accurate emission inventories and unbiased dispersion models to quantify such apportionment. We propose FUSTA (FUzzy SpatioTemporal Apportionment) methodology for analyzing aethalometer results for equivalent black carbon coming from fossil fuel (eBC) and wood combustion (eBC). We applied this methodology to ambient measurements at three suburban sites around Santiago, Chile, in the winter season 2021. FUSTA results showed that local sources contributed ∼80% to eBC and eBC in all sites. By using PM - eBC and PM - eBC scatterplots for each fuzzy cluster (or source) found by FUSTA, the estimated lower edge lines showed distinctive slopes in each measurement site. These slopes were larger for non-local sources (aged aerosols) than for local ones (fresh emissions) and were used to apportion combustion PM in each site. In sites Colina, Melipilla and San Jose de Maipo, fossil fuel combustion contributions to PM were 26 % (15.9 μg m), 22 % (9.9 μg m), and 22 % (7.8 μg m), respectively. Wood burning contributions to PM were 22 % (13.4 μg m), 19 % (8.9 μg m) and 22% (7.3 μg m), respectively. This methodology generates a joint source apportionment of eBC and PM, which is consistent with available chemical speciation data for PM in Santiago.
Topics: Air Pollutants; Particulate Matter; Environmental Monitoring; Seasons; Soot; Fossil Fuels; Aerosols; Carbon
PubMed: 38382732
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.123568 -
Scientific Reports Feb 2024Biomass combustion provides energy needs for millions of people worldwide. However, soot accumulation on the combustors' walls significantly reduces heat transfer...
Biomass combustion provides energy needs for millions of people worldwide. However, soot accumulation on the combustors' walls significantly reduces heat transfer efficiency. Herein, we demonstrate how microtextured surfaces minimize soot accumulation by enhancing soot oxidation. We investigate soot layers from the combustion of paraffin wax as a model for wood-based soot, and find that randomly microtextured glass obtained by sandblasting shows a 71% reduction in the time taken to oxidize 90% of surface soot coverage when compared to smooth glass at 530 °C. We also study grooved microtextures fabricated via laser ablation and find that grooves with widths between 15 and 50 µm enhance soot oxidation, while the expedited advantage is lost when the groove width is 85 µm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy validates the superior extent of soot removal on microtextures down to a sub-nanometer length-scale. The high density of sharp features such as peaks and edges on microtextures, and the conformality of the soot layer to the microtextures contribute to increased soot oxidation. We also demonstrate enhanced soot oxidation on microtextured stainless steel, the principal material of construction in biomass combustors. Microtextured surfaces that facilitate soot oxidation upon contact could significantly improve performance and longevity in various combustion applications.
PubMed: 38378782
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-54320-5