Chromium binding by calf thymus nuclei and effects on chromatin

1. No binding of chromium was detected after incubation of calf thymus nuclei with hexavalent chromium up to 0.5 mM.

2. Chromium was readily taken up and tightly bound after incubation with trivalent chromium.

3. In a DNA‐filter binding assay, increasing amounts of chromium and DNA were bound with increasing chromium trichloride concentrations incubated with the nuclei.

4. Treatment with proteinase K abolished the increase in DNA retention induced by trivalent chromium.

5. It is concluded that trivalent chromium is the ultimate genetoxic agent after chromate uptake by living cells.

     

Species distribution of arsenic in sediments after an unexpected emergent discharge of high-arsenic wastewater into a river

The unexpected emergent discharge of high-arsenic wastewater into water environments results in significantly increased levels of arsenic in water; however, the species distribution of arsenic in sediments has never been reported before for such cases. This study focuses on an As pollution accident in the Dasha River, and uses sequential extraction procedures with deionized water, 1?mol·L^-1 MgCl₂ at pH= 8, 1?mol·L^-1 NaH₂PO₄ at pH= 5, and 1?mol·L^-1 HCl to investigate four binding phases of arsenic (i.e., water soluble, ion-exchangeable, strongly-bound, and precipitates) in sediments at different layers in different cross-sections along the river. The average ratio of arsenite (As(III)) to arsenate (As(V)) was found to decrease from 0.74:1 in river water to 0.48:1 in sediment, owing to its higher affinity toward As(V) than As(III). The content of arsenic in the sediments was relatively low and the maximum content was observed to be 36.3?mg·kg^-1 for As(III) and 97.5?mg·kg^-1 for As(V). As(III) and As(V) showed different binding phases in sediments, and the average fractions of these four species were determined to be 0.09, 0.11, 0.17, and 0.63 for As(III) and 0.03, 0.14, 0.63, and 0.20 for As(V), respectively. For all the sediment samples, the content of arsenic showed no relationship with the characteristics of the sediments such as the particle diameter, the content of organic carbon, Fe, and Mn, although a negative correlation with particle diameter was observed for the sediments in the uppermost 2-cm layer. The unexpected emergent As incident results in the high content of total arsenic in the surface sediment, which may be potential secondary source to the elevated As levels in surface water.     

Speciation evolutions of target metals （Cd,Pb） influenced by chlorine and sulfur during sewage sludge incineration

In sludge incineration, the thermal behavior of heavy metal is a growing concern. In this work, the combined analysis of metal partitioning behavior between vapor phase and condensed phase, speciation redistribu- tion in condensed phase and the difference of metal species in binding energy was carried out to investigate the possible volatilization-condensation mechanism of heavy metals in high-temperature sludge incineration. It was found that there were two steps in metal volatilization. The initial volatilization of heavy metal originated from their exchangeable （EXC）, carbonate bound （CAR） and iron- manganese bound （FM） fractions, which is primarily composed of simple substance, chlorides, oxides and sulfides. With the increase of chlorine and sulfur in sludge, the inner speciation redistribution of heavy metals occurred in condensed phase, which was an important factor affecting the potential volatility of heavy metals. A partial of metal species with complexed （COM） and residual （RES） fractions gradually decomposed into simple substance or ions, oxides and carbonates, which signifi- cantly strengthened the second volatility. In presence of chlorine, about 46% of Cd with the RES fraction disappeared when the volatility rate of Cd increased by 44.89%. Moreover, about 9% of Pb with COM fraction disappeared when there was an increase of nearly 10% in the volatilization rate. Thus, the second volatilization was mainly controlled by the decomposition of metal species with COM and RES fractions. By virtue of XRD analysis and the binding energy calculation, it was found that metal complex and silicates were inclined to decompose under high temperature due to poor thermo stability as compared with sulfates.     

河北省环渤海地区可持续发展中水环境约束与对策

河北省环渤海地区是河北省对外开放的前沿,本文分析了其可持续发展过程中水资源短缺、水质污染及过量开采水资源导致的地面沉降等相关问题并提出了相应对策。     

Effect of in vitro administered 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) on DNA-binding activities of nuclear transcription factors in NIH-3T3 mouse fibroblasts

Abstract

Most modern pesticides are expensive. Application of excessive dosage rates is likely to cause undesirable biological side‐effects and is economically wasteful. Non‐uniform distribution of the spray cloud, or application at the wrong time, may result in failure to control the pest. It is the responsibility of the field operator to acquire sufficient knowledge and skill to ensure proper use of the control agents, to increase efficiency of their usage and to reduce unwanted side‐effects. To achieve this goal, he must take into consideration the various physical factors that govern field performance of pesticides.

A simple relationship exists between the spray volume and emission rate used, and droplet size produced. The use of extremely low spray volumes (i.e., those less than 2.0 litre per ha) for forest insect control in Canada, as opposed to higher volumes used in agriculture, necessitates the release of fine droplets (ranging from 20 to 70 μm in diameter) to obtain adequate coverage of the target area. These droplets take a long time to sediment downwards, evaporate in‐flight, become smaller in size and/or form powdery residues, thus contributing to off‐target drift and impaired droplet adhesion to target surfaces. Physical factors such as rain washing, degradation by sunlight and erosion by wind also influence the longevity of pesticide deposits on foliage which is crucial during the critical period of pest control.

Factors affecting the mode of entry into insects are related to the type of ingredients used in formulation. If a pesticide acts via crawling contact, formulations which would provide surface deposits would be more beneficial than emulsions or oil‐based mixes which tend to undergo penetration into foliar cuticle. Physical factors that affect field performance of a pesticide tank mix are related to phase separation and ‘breakdown of emulsions’ in the application equipment; ‘agglomeration and caking’ of wettable powder dispersions at the bottom of the tank; impaired flow behaviour of highly viscous formulations; and coarse atomization of high‐viscosity tank mixes leading to poor target cover.     

Characterization of binding site heterogeneity for copper within dissolved organic matter fractions using two-dimensional correlation fluorescence spectroscopy

The heterogeneity of copper binding characteristics for dissolved organic matter (DOM) fractions was investigated based on the fluorescence quenching of the synchronous fluorescence spectra upon the addition of copper and two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS). Hydrophobic acid (HoA) and hydrophilic (Hi) fractions of two different DOM (algal and leaf litter DOM) were used for this study. For both DOM, fluorescence quenching occurred at a wider range of wavelengths for the HoA fractions compared to the Hi fractions. The combined information of the synchronous and asynchronous maps derived from 2D-COS provided a clear picture of the heterogeneous distribution of the copper binding sites within each DOM fraction, which was not readily recognized by a simple comparison of the changes in the synchronous fluorescence spectra upon the addition of copper. For the algal DOM, higher stability constants were exhibited for the HoA versus the Hi fractions. The logarithms of the stability constants ranged from 4.8 to 6.1 and from 4.5 to 5.0 for the HoA and the Hi fractions of the algal DOM, respectively, depending on the associated wavelength and the fitted models. In contrast, no distinctive difference in the binding characteristics was found between the two fractions of the leaf litter DOM. This suggests that influences of the structural and chemical properties of DOM on copper binding may differ for DOM from different sources. The relative difference of the calculated stability constants within the DOM fractions were consistent with the sequential orders interpreted from the asynchronous 2D-COS. It is expected that 2D-COS will be widely applied to other DOM studies requiring detailed information on the heterogeneous nature and subsequent effects under a range of environmental conditions.     

Selective cellular and molecular effects of beryllium on lymphocytes†

An involvement of the immune system has been implicated in many of the whole animal effects of beryllium (Be) and its compounds and thus lymphocytes are a relevant cell model to study some of the cellular and molecular actions of the metal. Recent results indicate micromolar concentrations of Be salts are weakly mitogenic to lymphocytes in vitro probably as a result of direct interactions with the cell membranes. Furthermore evidence has been obtained that high affinity lymphocyte Be‐binding may be predictive of the potential to express delayed Be hypersensitivity in vivo. Although sub mitogenic concentrations of Be salts may actually activate accessory (macrophage type) cells, concentrations normally mitogenic to lymphocytes were found to inhibit their proliferative response to accessory cell dependent mitogens as a result of a Be²⁺ concentration dependent destruction of the adherent cell population. Higher concentrations of Be salts proved cytostatic to lymphocytes possibly by the established property of intracellularly accumulated Be²⁺ to inhibit cell division. Lymphocyte proliferation can be related to increases in protein phosphoryl‐ation capacity which in vitro can be inhibited by Be²⁺ and preliminary evidence indicates that tyrosine phosphorylation may be particularly sensitive.     

Mesoporous silicas synthesis and application for lignin peroxidase immobilization by covalent binding method

Immobilization of enzymes on mesoporous silicas (MS) allows for good reusability. MS with two-dimensional hexagonal pores in diameter up to 14.13 nm were synthesized using Pluronic P123 as template and 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene as a swelling agent in acetate buffer. The surface of MS was modified by the silanization reagents 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane. Lignin peroxidase (LiP) was successfully immobilized on the modified MS through covalent binding method by four agents: glutaraldehyde, 1,4- phenylene diisothiocyanate, cyanotic chloride and water-soluble carbodiimide. Results showed that cyanotic chloride provided the best performance for LiP immobilization. The loaded protein concentration was 12.15 mg/g and the immobilized LiP activity was 812.9 U/L. Immobilized LiP had better pH stability. Acid Orange II was used to examine the reusability of immobilized LiP, showing more than 50% of the dye was decolorized at the fifth cycle.     

Effect of two biogas residues’ application on copper and zinc fractionation and release in different soils

Biogas residue (BR) is widely used as a new green fertilizer in agriculture in China. However, it often contains a high concentration of heavy metals so its application should cause our concern. An incubation experiment was conducted to study the risk of pig biogas residue (PBR) and chicken biogas residue (CBR) application on Liuminying soil (LS) and Yixing soil (YS). The soils were incubated for one, three and six months with 0, 2%, 4% and 6% addition of BRs. According to BCR extraction results, the PBR and CBR applications induced an increase in the concentration of exchangeable fraction of Zn. As for the concentration of exchangeable fraction of Cu, an increase was only observed in the treatments with PBR application. The heavy metal binding intensity also showed a similar trend. With the PBR application, for the LS and YS, the highest concentrations of exchangeable Zn increased 3.6 and 9.5 times, respectively, while the exchangeable Cu was increased by 52.6% and 187.1%. Dissolved organic carbon was the limiting factor for the exchangeable Cu while the exchangeable Zn was controlled by soil pH. PBR presented more agricultural risk than CBR when used as fertilizer. Meanwhile, BRs were more adaptable to LS than YS according to the heavy metal release results.